Founder's Story
From Breakouts to Breakthroughs: Waepril’s Rise to a 180K-Strong Skincare Community | Ep 208
Mon, 28 Apr 2025
April (“Waepril”) shares how battling teenage acne sparked her obsession with ingredient-led skincare and launched her Instagram career. From zero views in quarantine to brand partnerships and a new website, she reveals the mindset, strategies, and resilience needed to turn personal struggle into a thriving beauty business.Key Discussion Points:Origins of Her Passion:Teenage acne eroded April’s confidence, driving her to decode product labels and hunt active ingredients that truly work.Emphasis on teaching followers how to read ingredients rather than chase marketing claims.Authentic Community Growth:Early quarantine boredom turned into daily posting despite tiny view counts—passion kept her going.Advice for new creators: embrace originality, adapt trends into your own voice, and persist through slow growth.Monetization Pathways:As follower count climbs, brands seek her out for product launches and paid collaborations.Amazon affiliate links and TikTok/IG Shop as accessible entry points before launching a full e-commerce site.Content Differentiation:Stand out by infusing every reel with your personality and story, not just mimicking top trends.Trend hijacking vs. trend transformation: use popular formats as springboards for unique angles.Overcoming Personal Loss:A pause after her father’s passing led to renewed clarity and commitment—turning grief into motivation.Balancing vulnerability and positivity to build deeper audience trust.The Future of Social Commerce:Huge potential in live selling on TikTok, YouTube Commerce, and Amazon Live, especially for beauty demos.The importance of user-friendly affiliate programs for creators without bespoke websites.Key Takeaways:Ingredient Literacy Is Power: Teach your audience to look past branding and focus on actives that actually deliver.Passion Fuels Persistence: When growth stalls, genuine enthusiasm and a personal “why” will carry you forward.Authenticity Wins: Audiences connect with real stories and personalities more than polished, generic content.Accessible Monetization: Start with affiliate links and brand collaborations before scaling to full e-commerce.Closing Thoughts:April’s journey proves that turning personal pain into purpose can create a loyal, engaged community—and a viable business. By prioritizing ingredient expertise, authentic storytelling, and resilience, any creator can transform their passion into influence and income.Our Sponsors:* Check out Indeed: https://indeed.com/FOUNDERSSTORY* Check out Northwest Registered Agent and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: https://northwestregisteredagent.com* Check out Plus500: https://plus500.com* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.com
Chapter 1: What sparked April's passion for skincare?
And so because of that, you know, because of my skin being bad during my teenage years, I start to learn the ingredients of different skincare products, right? When they say acne-prone skin, within the acne-prone skin, you see thousands of products in the market. But then which one is for you? So I tried a lot of different products. And some of them made my skin even worse.
I noticed that I even have more acne afterwards. So I'm like, okay, that didn't work. So I ended up trying out a lot of different products. And eventually, I realized... It's actually the ingredients that matters. Like the ingredients are the ones that really does something to your skin. And you need to find the right ingredient that will work well for your skin.
So that's kind of how I started this whole beauty industry idea. And which is why if you look at some of my Instagram posts, When I talk a lot, when I talk about the products, I talk a lot about the ingredients itself because those are the active ingredients are the ones that actually make your skin like either better or worse. So it's kind of like it's very important.
And I hope, you know, whoever for the individuals who's passionate about the beauty industry, you know, looking at the ingredients is actually very important.
I'm glad you bring that up. It can be very daunting for people, right? Like you said, I have acne, I have some acne scars still. You want to get rid of this. You see every advertisement, you know, before it'd be like TV advertisements, right? And then you try it and it doesn't work, makes it worse. And then you're You're more you're less confident. You know, you're more thinking about the acne.
It almost makes you stress like is really it's really very daunting. So it's great to have someone like yourself who who's actually trying it. It's like an unbiased perspective. Is that what you're what you're seeing now from a lot of content creators is the ability for us to watch them try it.
Yes, there are definitely a lot of beauty influencers who do that. Some of them like really has, you know, they used to have very bad skin and they show it from the video. Like, look, I use, you know, product A for two to three weeks and now my skin has cleared up and
my acne is gone but acne prone skin can be very tricky because let's say you have acne I have acne but different ingredients will work for you different ingredients will work for me so it's kind of like it's a bit tricky it's good to follow like it's good to watch followers but in the end of the day
Every skin, every individual has a different skin, even though, you know, both of us have acne prone skin, like it could, it still could be different. So in the end of the day, it's important to try out the product on your own. Yeah.
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Chapter 2: How did April build her skincare community?
Yes. So, after my dad passed away, I actually stuck for a bit. Like, I think I gave myself a couple months. Like, I just, like, it's hard, like, when you're so sad, it's hard to be joyful. Because, you know, when you create Instagram Reel, you want to ooze out, at least I want to ooze out positive energy. It's like...
hey, I'm using this product and I love it, you know, and I want to ooze positive energy. But after my dad passed away, it was very, very hard for me. So I kind of just, you know, I told myself, you know what, I'm going to give myself a couple months break and I will come back, you know, with a better mindset and just really focus.
I feel like before my dad passed away, I was really doing Instagram for fun. Like just, you know, hey, I get freebies. You know, this is product A, product B. But after my dad passed away and after that conversation with my dad, that's the time when my mindset is very like clear of like, I really want to get into this and I want to be successful.
Or at least I'm going to try my best to be successful.
It sounds like it really gave you the motivation. Yeah. I'm curious, something I see a lot of people doing when it comes to makeup, and I find this very fascinating, is they'll talk about maybe something serious or they'll talk about vacation trips and they're putting on makeup.
What is this trend in terms of like you're doing like makeup or skincare, but you're talking about something completely different? This seems to be something it's continuing to catch on.
Like you mean like talking about makeup, but at the same time traveling?
So they'll be like putting makeup on or they'll be like doing some sort of skincare, but they're talking about something totally unrelated, like has nothing to do with skincare. But it's like the act of putting makeup on, like they're filming themselves putting makeup on. and talking about a vacation they went on.
I was just watching this video about a woman talking about her vacation, but she's always doing videos of putting makeup on her skincare, but she's not talking about that. She's talking about something else. And I'm wondering about, is this a way to grab attention? I'm trying to figure out what was the psychology around why I'm seeing people doing this, but they're not talking about the skincare.
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Chapter 3: What strategies did April use to monetize her content?
So it's almost like, hey, even me as an individual, I go like, hmm, what would be something cool that people haven't done before? And then you just go with it. And sometimes if I see like, oh, it's the top trending thing to do, I was like, maybe I should give it a try. So that's what I would do.
Like I would just like, I think that is the idea behind it is like trying to be original and not be lumped together as like, you know, oh, you're just one of the 500 influencers that has done ABCDE. You know, at least that one's different and they think it's fun. Plus it gives them a little bit of a personality to it.
That makes total. Yeah. I mean, like you said, there's billions of people on social media. It's really hard to stand out many times. It takes a lot of effort and energy. What is I know YouTube is obviously TikTok has TikTok shop and they've been crushing it. I've seen people do like a million dollars in a day selling on insane numbers. Right.
Which I know, like in China and certain parts of Asia, that's kind of the norm. but it's more coming to the US, North America, Canada. I know YouTube just launched YouTube Shop or YouTube Commerce. I forget what they're calling it. How do you see the future of, from your perspective as a content creator, being able to obviously sell live?
And then if you have a brand, using that brand with other creators to also sell live, how do you see this whole social commerce thing playing out?
I think there's definitely a huge potential to make it as a business. Because if you look at Amazon right now, they have an Amazon shop. And definitely, I think after COVID, during 2020, 2021, I start seeing Amazon shop growing their beauty products.
Um, and I think that's the idea behind it is because for us, um, beauty influencers, like, especially when you're starting off and you want to start earning, you know, commissions here and there, Amazon is actually a good place to kind of start, have like a little bit of a website and then attach it and then put your commission links. Um,
And that is good for people who are starting, people who can't afford to, you know, have their own customized website yet at that time. So there's definitely a huge potential there when it comes to business and earning money.
You know, funny enough, not many people know this. Only really you, April, and maybe two others. Back in 2015, I was doing skincare videos for Amazon Live. And it was only me and Korean women. That's it. Me and Korean women. But the crazy thing though is nobody ever bought. It was very, very hard to convince people in the US at that time.
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Chapter 4: How did personal loss shape April's journey?
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Chapter 5: What are the future trends in social commerce?
You can easily search my name or my Instagram handle is April underscore April underscore beauty.
What are some of your favorite products that you're using right now?
So I have a lot of skincare products that I really love at the moment. So I don't know about you, Daniel, but I do the double cleansing method. So double cleansing method, I don't want to go too much on it. But basically, the idea is you want to cleanse your face twice. And the whole idea is because... You want to first use an oil-based cleanser to remove makeup.
And the second one is a water-based cleanser to just further make sure that your face is clean. So the reason why I like the double cleansing method is because... I find with makeup, makeup products typically contain both oil and water-based ingredients. So when you just use a water-based ingredient as a cleanser, like sorry, water-based cleanser, sometimes you still leave some gunk on your face.
Like it doesn't come off. So this is why I like the double cleansing method. I feel like it's the best to make sure that your skin is really clean. So my two favorite products for the double cleansing method is the one from Pharmacy Beauty. It's called the Double Cleansing Balm. Oil-based cleanser, but unscented, perfect for sensitive skin. So that will work on almost everybody.
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Chapter 6: How can creators differentiate their content?
I have been using this product for a couple of years now, and it has worked wonders. I cannot stop using the product. If I stop, my skin is almost going to scream like, What did you do differently? What did you do differently? You got to go back. So that was the first product. The water-based cleanser that I love at the moment is the one from It Cosmetics. It's called Confidence in This Cleanser.
It's a water-based serum cleanser. Super nourishing, super hydrating, and at the same time, it cleanses my face very effectively. So those are like my favorite cleanser. Favorite moisturizer is the one from Kiehl's. It's called the Ultra Facial Cream. Very, very popular product.
And I like the fact that it's unscented and it's that moisturizer that I can use, you know, all four seasons and my skin feels moisturized. Because as you may know, when it comes to like wintertime, typically you'd need a thicker cream. And then when it comes to summertime, when our skin tends to be oily and greasy, we want something more water-based.
But I find with the Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cream, like you get to use it all year long and my skin feels hydrated. It just feels amazing. So that's why I keep talking about it because I'm like, I wish people would give it a try. If you, Daniel, or any of the viewers who's watching this video haven't tried that product, I would suggest you to do so because I love it so much.
But yeah, and the other favorite beauty product that I... tried, which I'm highly recommending to a lot of ladies out there, is the YSL Lash Class Mascara. So that mascara recently launched, I would say a month ago. So it's a recently new product. But what I find is that the applicator one is amazing in like making your eyelashes look really volumized. It's one of the few that can do that.
A lot of the things like in the drugstore, it doesn't do it as well. But that one just like, oh my God, like, wow, I can see my lashes now. Because I don't have a lot of lashes. So I can really see a big like noticeable difference. So yeah, there we go.
Well, there we go. We got the whole lesson. So we got to check out those four products. Yeah. Um, April, this has been a lot of fun. Uh, thank you again for being vulnerable today, for sharing your story and sharing some tips and strategies that we can all take away. Uh, and I hope everyone checks out your website and then your, your social accounts as well.
And, uh, thank you for joining us today on founder story.
All right. Sounds good. Yeah. Thank you, Daniel.
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